


dum se maneo

by creabimus



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Critical Role Spoilers, Gen, Introspection, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 03:02:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13627224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creabimus/pseuds/creabimus
Summary: “Consume,” the eye demands, but Fjord wonders if it’s talking about him or itself.





	dum se maneo

**Author's Note:**

> fjord lore   
> =   
> fjlore

Fjord sees himself in the abyss.

He’s drowning, he must be. Salt water stings the eyes he cannot close; fills the mouth he cannot keep from hanging open; wafts around his hair and clothes, gripping and pulling him into the depths of avarice. He treads water, and the gleaming yellow eye cements itself as a second sun in front of him.

He doesn’t believe in fate (but shouldn’t he). He doesn’t believe in restless divinity (a liar he will be). He doesn’t comprehend the scale of what he’s done (will it be worse to realize or never to understand).

“Consume.”

The gods forged themselves from the chaos first.

Bottomless sea opens underneath him, and as if the sea were merely a draining tub, the water level sinks. His arms thrash at his sides, his legs kick at the bubbles and small fish quickly sucked into the void, but for all the salt water in his lungs he cannot keep himself swaddled in the sea’s grasp. The eye winks out of existence. He finds himself utterly alone.

Fjord watches the nothingness take his body, the sea, the life within it.

 

-

 

He doesn’t make it five inches from his bed before his lungs begin expelling water. His body curves inward, goosebumps forming one at a time on his exposed skin, and within seconds a decently sized puddle of salt water appears at his feet. At least the others are sleeping, he decides. He doesn’t know how to explain the recurring dreams he shouldn’t be having, or the water in his lungs, or the feverish quality his body’s taken on. He doesn’t want to see the betrayal in Jester’s eyes when she registers all that slips from his mouth are lies.

While dry coughs ravage his body a few moments longer, his eyes slip closed. He stills. The yellow eye stares back at him from the recesses of his mind, or perhaps simply the back of his eyelids.

What did it mean, consume? What did any of the words mean, or the hungry sea, or the perpetual void at his feet? A warning, perhaps? A command? Maybe even a revelation? A warning for what, the consequences of his decision? A command to obey without questioning? A revelation that this is not where the world ends, nor where it begins?

The eye disappears when he opens his eyes. He falls back onto the bed and pulls the covers up to his chin, but his body still shakes with what he refuses to analyze.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr @ iugias


End file.
